Look what Found (at the back of my fridge)

The Beetroot...

I know you began life deep in the soil...you were a root.
Soon pulled from your earthy bed ... trimmed and washed
And placed upon a market shelf ...where I bought you.

Drove home with you ...lying tossed in my woven basket..
Underneath the bread
The yoghurt... the bag of couscous and bouncing on the wine

I sliced you with my sharpest knife
Placed you in a glass bowl and poured Balsamic over you...

Did that acid sting...did you scream...?
No...I forgot...they had already boiled you... you were dead.

I ate some of you ...not all...then put your remains into the fridge...
To be forgotten. ..it was not intentional.

How long had you been there in that cold chamber ?
How long had you lurked behind the chicken carcass,
...behind the oozing camembert..?
Was it weeks.. ?

I found you on a Tuesday...as silent and passive as a sleeping volcanic rock
I drew a sharp breath as I lifted you towards the table.
It was your beauty..the landscape you’d become.. the colours you had made.
You might be another galaxy for all we know.

As I looked at the mutated form that you now were ...
I knew I was close to seeing Life after Death...

And I began to understand what eternal changing evolving
Life might mean.

Kristine Byrne Sept.2010